Mother's Day - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

There Once Was a Fish 

There once was a fish.

(What more could you wish?)

He lived in the sea.

(Where else would he be?)

He was caught on a line.

(Whose line if not mine?)

So I brought him to you.

(What else should I do?)

Mother's Day - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: Mother's Day is a modern celebration honoring one's own mother, as well as motherhood, maternal bonds, and the influence of mothers in society. It is celebrated on various days in many parts of the world, most commonly in the months of March or May. It complements similar celebrations honoring family members, such as Father's Day and Siblings Day.

The modern American holiday of Mother's Day was first celebrated in 1908, when Anna Jarvis held a memorial for her mother at St Andrew's Methodist Church in Grafton, West Virginia, which now holds the International Mother's Day Shrine. Her campaign to make "Mother's Day" a recognized holiday in the United States began in 1905, the year her beloved mother, Ann Reeves Jarvis, died. Anna's mission was to honor her own mother by continuing work she started and to set aside a day to honor mothers, "the person who has done more for you than anyone in the world". Anna's mother, Ann Jarvis, was a peace activist who cared for wounded soldiers on both sides of the Civil War and created Mother’s Day Work Clubs to address public health issues.

In 1908, the US Congress rejected a proposal to make an official holiday, among jokes that they would have to proclaim also a "Mother-in-law's Day". Due to the campaign efforts of Anna Jarvis, by 1911 all US states observed the holiday, with some of them officially recognizing Mother's Day as a local holiday, the first in 1910 being West Virginia, Jarvis' home state. In 1914 Woodrow Wilson signed the proclamation creating Mother’s Day, the second Sunday in May, as a national holiday to honor mothers.